A movie cameo!

Submitted by jeffb on January 2, 2020 - 3:27pm

My wife and I went to see "Ford v Ferrari" yesterday—a very good movie about Ford, race car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) trying to win at Le Mans in the mid-'60s. The guy at Ford who gets things going, at least in the movie, is Lee Iacocca, and though I got just a glimpse of it, I saw right away what watch he was wearing: an Accutron 214. And it makes perfect sense that the go-getter, forward-thinking guy at Ford would be wearing that watch at that time. 

Damon was wearing a three-button chronometer, which makes perfect sense for a guy who is liable to be timing laps on a race course, but I don't know nearly enough to recognize it — not a Bulova, anyhow. Maybe somebody out there can ID it, and I bet it's correct for the period: The prop folks clearly paid attention to an awful lot of details, including the cars (of course) and planes.

I also wondered: Does anybody remember any other Bulova cameos in the movies?

The last watch I remember being an important prop in a movie was in the Tom Hanks flick "Cast Away." Helen Hunt gives him the pocket watch her grandfather used as a railroad man on the Southern Pacific, and Hanks keeps it through his years stranded on an island. But the watch has a hunter case and roman numerals, while railroad-approved watches must be open face with arabic numerals. 

 

 

Reverend Rob
Posted January 2, 2020 - 7:21pm

As with other elements of wardrobe, they don't always get the watch period-correct. 

In 'Once upon a time in Hollywood,' Brad Pitt's Bullhead Citizen is a model not yet released.

Almost, but not quite. 

What always catches my eye is a period movie and the actor has a large-dialled watch, usually a giveaway, but not always. Sometimes they go out of their way to do a close up of the watch and you can clearly see the dial. A good example of this is when Uma Thurman is timing her home pregnancy test (Kill Bill) with what appears to be a Rolex Daytona, when it is in fact, a fake.

This actually isn't that surprising, you don't always want high end props on the set if you can help it, which is why they do repro jewellery, of course. There are times when the stuff is real, but I imagine they have a specific person who wrangles the pieces and is responsible for their safe keeping. 

Geoff Baker
Posted January 2, 2020 - 9:42pm

I'm a car guy, I saw that movie 15 seconds after it was released. I've read the book it was based on 3 times already, I highly recommend it - Go Like Hell - by AJ Baime. I'll go back and look at the watch you refer to Jeff, once the movie hits the small screen. In the mean time, those of you watching THE IRISHMAN, should pause at about 1 hr 20 minutes as DeNiro's character takes off his watch and lays it on the night stand, any guesses as to this model?

mybulova_admin
Posted January 3, 2020 - 11:20pm

Carl Rosen, the Bulova historian has also let us know that an American Girl watch was loned from the museum to appear in 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' on Amazon Video.  It can been seen in Season 3, Episode 5 as she descends the staircase, she wears it for the balance of the show!